With the proceeds of the jewel case Ruby bought a little coasting vessel, with which he made frequent and successful voyages.  “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” no doubt, for Minnie grew fonder of Ruby every time he went away, and every time he came back.  Things prospered with our hero, and you may be sure that he did not forget his old friends of the lighthouse.  On the contrary, he and his wife became frequent visitors at the signal-tower, and the families of the lighthouse-keepers felt almost as much at home in “the cottage” as they did in their own houses.  And each keeper, on returning from his six weeks’ spell on the rock to take his two weeks’ spell at the signal-tower, invariably made it his first business, after kissing his wife and children, to go up to the Brands and smoke a pipe in the scullery with that eccentric old seafaring nursery-maid of the name of Ogilvy.

In time Ruby found it convenient to build a top flat on the cottage, and above this a small turret, which overlooked the opposite houses, and commanded a view of the sea.  This tower the captain converted into a point of lookout, and a summer smoking-room,—­and many a time and oft, in the years that followed, did he and Ruby climb up there about nightfall, to smoke the pipe of peace, with Minnie beside them, and to watch the bright flashing of the red and white light on the Bell Rock, as it shone over the waters far and wide, like a star of the first magnitude, a star of hope and safety, guiding sailors to their desired haven; perchance reminding them of that star of Bethlehem which guided the shepherds to Him who is the Light of the World and the Rock of Ages.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland